Israel launched brutal airstrikes in Gaza late on Tuesday, killing 104 people including 46 children, claiming it mounted the strikes after an attack by Palestinian militants killed one soldier, in the latest challenge to an already fragile ceasefire.
Gazan health authorities said the Israeli strikes killed at least 104 people, including five in a house hit in the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, four in a building in Gaza City’s Sabra neighborhood, and five in a car in Khan Younis.
An Israeli military official said Hamas had violated the ceasefire by carrying out an attack against Israeli forces who were stationed within the so-called “yellow line”, the deployment line agreed upon in the ceasefire.
The agreement went into effect on October 10, halting two years of war triggered by deadly Hamas-led attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023.
Hamas denied responsibility for the attack on Israeli forces in Rafah, in southern Gaza, and said in a statement that it remained committed to the ceasefire deal.
Under the accord, Hamas released all living hostages in return for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and wartime detainees, while Israel pulled back its troops and halted its offensive.
Hamas also agreed to hand over the remains of all dead hostages yet to be recovered, but has said that it will take time to locate and retrieve all of the bodies. Israel says the militant group can access the remains of most of the hostages.
The issue has become one of the main sticking points in the ceasefire, which Trump says he is watching
